MJL

I primarily fish outside of a hut. For lakers, I use 8lb Berkley Trilene XL. My UL panfish reel is spooled up with 4lb Berkley Micro ice. If I was inside a hut, I'd be more inclined to use braid or a superline of some sort.

When I was in the 10^th grade, I used to go to Angling Specialties for my lessons (I lived a short bus ride from the old Scarborough store). After class, George taught me how to build rods. The first rod I built was a 3pc fly rod made of 3 different scrap blanks. It was cosmetically quite ugly but it performed great for tossing big streamers off the beach for salmon. My friend liked the action so much he bought it…After I built myself a 14’ Hardy float rod, 13’ Lamiglas, 13’ Loomis Premier, 13’ Loomis IM6, 13’6” Loomis GL3 and the list goes on…Once you start, you can’t stop

Just awesome Tyler

Definitely can't wait to make it up to your neck of the woods

Great collection of photos

Seriously awesome pike

Congrats Mike

Eagerly waiting to pick up a copy to read.

Best wishes for your uncle

Maybe next time I’ll pack a 36” rod in the tube.LOL

Now I wanna see a 40lb Gerrard rainbow fit through that 8" hole

Nicely done Lorne

Back in 2007 while camping in Algonquin park with a few friends, a big mamma moose and her calf wondered right into the middle of our campsite. Both were about 10ft away from us. For 2 minutes, we were sitting there just looking at each other trying not to move till they left.LOL

Back in 2005 or 2006, my friends fly-fished around Whistler for steelhead, dollies & resident rainbows (in November I think). They fished with Brian Niska from Whistler Fly Fishing and had a great time. On that trip, their rod tube containing $2400 worth of Sage spey rods was crushed in half during transit but Brian had them set up with all the gear. Not too sure if he does other types of fishing (eg. float fishing) but my friends rate him very well if you're thinking of doing some fly fishing.

I like it!

Very nice Chris

After working serious OT the last few weeks, I'm definitely thinking about having a 13' 2pc CTS done up for next season. Fuji YSG guides this time

Awesome Erik...Really nice browns

It's been many years since I caught a white bass. I remember having tons of fun fishing for them with my dad as a kid.

Thanks for the report

Very sweet Chris

Never heard of gulp minnows under a float, how would you rig it?

Down in the Niagara, I rig them on 1/16oz - 1/8oz jig heads. For smaller rivers, I sometimes just thread them through the nose with the same #8-10 hook I use for other baits like roe and pink worms.

Very cool!

I never would’ve thought American eels would make it to Lake Simcoe. From my understanding, all eels migrate from the Sargasso sea (in the Atlantic ocean where they were born). They would have to swim up the St. Lawrence and go past many dams before reaching Lake Ontario. Then migrate through the Trent Severn canal system (also past many dams) before finally making it to Lake Simcoe. There they live until they migrate back to the Sargasso sea to spawn (kind of like a reverse life cycle of a salmon and with a longer lifespan). Is this right?

Don't open the bag and keep it in a cool place...They'll live overnight in the bag with no problems.

I keep my minnows in the garage or basement overnight.

Maybe it's just me but I don't like one above my float. My thoughts are that the float doesn't sit right if too close. Just saying why I don't as I'm FAR from a good pin-angler.

I don't like running a swivel above the float either. It's mostly just the fact that I'd like to have the flexibility to slide my float up and down. On the rivers I fish, I can have my float 6ft from the hook at one pool and the next spot I'll be rigged at 9-10ft.

I used to join my leader to mainline with a triple surgeons knot. I got tired of having to slide all my shots and float up the line so I could retie the leader back on. I use a swivel for my mainline/leader connection.

I don’t run a flasher, but a graph - Humminbird 345c with an ice ducer. I’ve fished down to 134ft on Simcoe with no problems seeing my lure to that depth. Since I started ice fishing 3 seasons ago, I can only remember 3 fish I hooked on Simcoe that I didn’t get on the chase. I can figure out if I’m fishing dead water, what depth they’re holding at, how aggressive the fish are, what lures they’re responding to best, etc. I tried fishing for lakers without a sonar unit when I first started and I won’t go back to fishing blind now.

It’s to the point now that I’m contemplating leaving a 2nd sonar unit in the car for backup (just in case the one I bring out onto the ice goes mental - which my old one did). Hands down one of the best ever investments I’ve ever made.

Best wishes for your uncle, Mike

Really love the pics of your son hoisting up the rainbows. I can't wait to take my nephew out when he gets to that age.

Still good to go

Now we know who can`t keep a secret around here!!!

It’s more of a public service to those that are on the hunt for bigfoot...Take note, not all things that are bi-pedal, large, hairy and naked are sasquatches...

Back in August of 2006, I was paddling along the shoreline of one small lake in Algonquin Park and could’ve sworn I saw bigfoot. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a portly and quite hairy dude celebrating his 45th birthday in his birthday suit...I knew something wasn’t right when he asked me how my day went...I probably should’ve taken notice of the can of Heineken that he was drinking before paddling closer to investigate...

I primarily use Riverwood floats...It's mostly what I can get for free by picking them off of trees and snags. Back in the day I used to run mostly Drennan Avons and Loafers but sold them all off for cheap because I just had a hard time seeing them.

I use to also use a Thill balsa that had a thin metal wire bottom,it was made for fast current,it let the bait get down stream ahead of the float with less drag on the wire bottom. I just can't seem to find them anymore,they worked very well.

Lebarons has a bunch of the Thill Turbomaster floats in stock in a few different sizes.

Guys were getting greased out on what little ice there was last year on Simcoe.. Complete madness.

Indeed.

You know it’s bad when you can see the other angler’s lure on your sonar

If this year is the same as last, I may invest in a bunch of wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men to surround myself with and make the appearance that I’ve already been greased out

Last winter I stumbled upon a deadly jigging technique for lakers and I'm ready to unleash it ASAP!

It involves jumping as high as you can while you make a big upward sweep of the rod (the longer the better). I don't think I actually caught a fish with that technique, but it quickly scared off all the people that tried to park themselves right next to me

I run 10 & 12lb Raven on my reels (Pretty much depends what the local tackle shops have in stock). I don’t run hi-vis at all (that’s just my preference). For Raven I run lines in either the blue/grey colour or green colour (also depends what the tackle shop has in stock at the time).

I’ve seen guys running hi-vis lines without a clear shot line and catching fish. Personally the only time I can think of it being useful is when fishing amongst a crowd of people – ie. Casting over each other’s lines. In my case, the rivers I fish the vast majority of the time are crowd free and worrying about other people seeing my line is not a problem.

Back in the day before Raven, I used to run Maxima UG in 8lb. I found that it handled pretty similar to 12lb Raven. Maxima in the higher lb test (12 & up) is pretty thick (IMO it's under rated as far as breaking strain goes) and if you're using smaller shots, you may need to use a thinner diameter shot line below.

Goals for 2013: DON'T CUT YOURSELF WITH THE AUGER ON EVERY TRIP!

Definitely can't wait to get back on the ice again with you. You're the only one who brings a stove and cooks